when the party’s over
by bynightawriter
Summary: The gang has graduated Hollywood Arts, what comes next? Fane and fortune? Scandals and sabatoge? Or maybe all of the above...
1. i

**When the party's over**

**I rewatched Victorious for the first time in years and wanted to make a post-graduation fic. Why? Probably craving the end we didn't get. Hopefully the characters don't feel too OOC, I mean they were designed to fit a kid show but I'm not a kid and neither are the characters so I'm trying to write them as what they are - 17 and 18 year old starving artists. I'm trying to include as much canon as possible, and usng things about what the cast and Dan said about the characters post-show. **

**Chapter One: **

_I'm not afraid of moving on and lettin' go_

_It's just so hard to say goodbye to what I know_

_This Time - Glee Cast_

They all graduate from Hollywood Arts.

Cat by the skin of her teeth, but she walks across the stage with all her friends.

They all spend that day together, along with some of the other random kids from Hollywood Arts and Cat's roommate Sam, at a bonfire at the beach.

They all find themselves a bit away from the others, their squad (and Sam) sitting in a circle.

"Can you believe we're not high school students anymore?" Andre asks. "I mean, you," he says, motioning to Beck "aren't even gonna be a student anymore."

Beck isn't going to college, yet another decision that horrified his parents. But he wanted to be an actor, and he wanted to focus all his time into auditioning and getting into the industry.

Everyone else was going to school. Cat was going to community college while still babysitting with Sam. Andre and Tori were going to go to UCLA, Tori was going to be living on campus while Andre lived at home because he still needed to make sure his grandma was okay. Robbie and Jade would be leaving the west coast however and heading to New York, Robbie going to NYU and Jade heading to Julliard.

She didn't talk to anyone but Beck about why she had chosen Julliard. Not even Cat.

"We have to stay in contact." Tori says. "No matter how big we get, or how busy we get. We have to stay friends."

"No promises." Jade mutters as she brings her drink up to her lips.

"No, we have to." Andre says with a nod. "I mean, life is gonna get crazy. We can all keep each sane."

Jade doesn't agree, but she's outvoted.

So, they agree to keep in touch.

Over the summer, Beck keeps auditioning. He gets a job that films in Vancouver, about a high school student who may or may not be a sociopath.

Jade and Beck break up two weeks later. Neither really talk about _why_ they break up.

Another week later and they're all at the airport saying goodbye to Beck, who's going to Vancouver to film his pilot. Jade isn't there.

And then a week after that, Jade and Robbie are off to New York. Robbie is going to American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He's had dreams of doing something with music, but he knows that people think his ventriloquist act is amazing, and he can really do something with that.

Cat is distraught at the thought of two of the most important people going across the country and leaving her behind. Robbie almost changes his mind, starts looking into community colleges that he can quickly try to get into or jobs he can find, but he's convinced to stick with his original plan of going to New York.

In August, Andre and Tori start at UCLA, taking classes while still living with his grandma. She's getting worse, losing her mind more and more each day. It's not that he ignores this fact, but he can't think of not having her around. So he doesn't.

Tori takes the required classes, while starting to work on her career as a recording artist.

They try to keep in contact with each other.

It's easiest for Tori and Andre. They have classes together, and they work on coursework together. Andre also keeps up with Beck, who's show ends up getting a series order.

Cat spends a lot of time video chatting with Robbie. She's also been making Splashface videos which has gotten a lot of attention from kids, which isn't all that surprising, considering how she acts. Jade also makes sure to keep in contact with her, texting Cat or Sam and making sure the redhead is okay.

They all try to meet up for Thanksgiving, but Jade doesn't bother coming back to LA, and Beck is spending time with family in Canada, and Cat goes to Idaho to visit her brother, so it's just Tori, Andre, and Robbie. And Robbie has always been their friend, but they decide that they'll have more fun just the two of them.

By the New Year, it's hard to say they're a gang of friends. They're just… people who went to high school together.


	2. ii

**I wanna stick as much to canon as possible (I know several people just clicked away lol), and read some old interviews and tweets for the inspiration of what the characters would do once they got out of school. For example, I broke Bade up because Victoria Justice says she thinks they would have broken up once they graduated. **

**However, that's not to say I won't take some liberties with things. I wanna make this as realistic as possible and let's face it, some things about the show are just **_**nawt**_** realistic. **

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! **

**II**

_Oh the spaces between us_

_Keep getting deeper_

_Getting harder to reach ya_

_Even though i try_

_Spaces - One Direction_

Tori Vega is at a crossroads.

It's her second semester at UCLA, and she's doing well. But Mason and RCA Records want her to do _more_. Spend more time in the studio, spend more time building a name for herself.

It's hard doing that _and_ making sure she has assignments in on time.

Andre has been a big help, helping her with both music and assignments when she needs him too. But she knows that a lot for him, because he has his own assignments, and is trying to get into the music industry himself.

Tori finds herself asking someone she never thought of for help - Trina.

Her older sister hadn't bothered with college, since she already sort of kinda has a job in the entertainment industry.

She meets Trina on her lunch break - she's never going back to the set of Trina's show - and Trina wants to go to a restaurant that's completely out of her price range. But the food is supposed to be really good, so they go anyways.

Trina comes thirty minutes after they agree to meet with an air of arrogance about her that's larger than the one she had in high school, if that's possible. She pushes her overly sunglasses back onto her head dramatically before she smiles at Tori as she sits across from her.

"Heyyy."

Tori glares at her. "I have been waiting for you!" she exclaims, and Trina waves a dismissive hand as she grabs a menu.

"Sorry, things on set ran late," she says offhandedly before she asks, "Should I get something with garlic? I don't wanna stink."

Tori rolls her eyes. "You know, I asked to meet because I need some advice." Tori tells her.

"Yeah, why couldn't you just ask me over text or something?" Trina wants to know.

Tori doesn't want to admit that she's actually missed her sister, as crazy as it sounds. She could see Trina anytime she wanted, with Trina still living at home with their parents, but she barely had time to think, let alone visit.

Instead Tori says, "Can we just order and talk?"

Trina complies, ordering something that without a doubt make her breath stink, and Tori orders a chicken salad. She allows Trina to ramble about the set and her weirdo director before their food comes. Once it does Trina starts stuffing her face, and Tori finally has a chance to speak.

"Trina, do you regret not going to college?"

The older Vega sister snorts. "Why would I?"

"Because mom and dad were disappointed when you didn't go." Tori reminds her.

"So? They ended up blowing through the money they saved for my tuition anyways." Trina responds with a shrug. "Plus they expect stuff like that from me. If _you_ were to not go to college, oh man, they'd probably have matching aneurysms."

Tori feels her stomach swoop. That's one thing she's been afraid of, disappointing her parents. They knew she wanted to be a star and supported her dreams of course, but they also wanted her to have something to fall back on, in case it didn't work out.

Tori just knew she didn't _need_ anything else to fall back on.

She didn't like to think that she was cocky or anything, but she was talented, and everyone who had met her had thought so. She wasn't cocky about her talent, she was confident; clear difference.

"I'm thinking about dropping out." Tori finds herself saying.

Trina's eyes widen slightly. "And what would you do?"

"Focus on music." Tori says. "Mason really wants me to make my album. And when I'm in the studio I'm worried about deadlines and papers I have to write and assignments I have to finish and when I'm in class I'm thinking about songs I need to write. I can't do both."

"Then drop out." Trina replies with a shrug.

"But mom and dad-"

"Will be disappointed, sure, but it's not like they're gonna disown you." Trina tells her. She stabs at her food before she says, "You know you can do no wrong in their eyes."

Tori plops some salad into her mouth for a moment, contemplating her sister's words. They've always been supportive of whatever she's wanted to do, even if it was something that deviates from what they thought she should be doing.

Trina was right they'd be disappointed for sure, but they would support her.

"The only thing is that I would have to move back home." Tori whines.

She's grown accustomed to being on her own in a dorm, and honestly, it was a lot better than living at home. Did she really want to go back to that?

"Yeah, that sucks for you." Trina says snootily. "_I'm _moving out in a couple weeks. I found a _great_ place for super cheap."

Tori's eyes widen as she moves forward in her chair. "Trina! I could live with you!"

"Uh, it's a one bedroom." Trina tells her before she adds, "the other bedroom is for my shoes."

Tori blinks for a moment. "So you are getting a two bedroom apartment? Oh Trina _please_ let me stay with you! I'll-i'll help out with rent, whatever you need! I just do not want to go back home with mom and dad Trina _please_."

Trina looks at her for a moment before she shrugs a shoulder. "I'll think about it."

Tori grins. She knows that she and her sister have their issues, but she also knows that when push comes to shove, she can count on Trina.

Sometimes.

—

Cat sits in the chair of the office her legs bouncing excitedly. She's meeting with someone important! That's what Sam and Gunther said anyways. Gunther isn't here, he's in school, but Sam is, she's walking around the room, looking at stuff.

"Hey, this would go for a pretty penny on the web." she comments, holding up a statue.

Cat knows what Sam means, that she wants to take something that doesn't belong to her, and that's bad! She points a finger at her. "Put that down!" she scolds, and Sam narrows her eyes but does what she says.

The blonde sighs as she plops down in the chair besides Cat. "I'm _bored_. Where are these people anyways?" she asks as he puts her feet up on the desk. "They better bring some food. Mama is hungry."

"I hope they have bibble." Cat says dreamily. She hasn't had bibble in such a long time. She misses bibble.

"The _last_ thing you need is bibble." Sam tells her as she leans back in the chair. "I could go for some fried chicken right now though."

Cat doesn't have a chance to respond, because the door opens and a fancy dressed man walks in, a nice smile on his lips. He's handsome, and Cat finds herself giggling and looking away from him.

Sam narrows her eyes at her, clearly wntin to know _why_ Cat is giggling, but she doesn't say anything as the man moves around the desk and sits down.

"Hi Miss Valentine. My name is Sonny Waterer." he says, and even the way he says it makes Cat feel all fluttery. She giggles again.

"Stop doing that." Sam barks out.

The man laughs. "I can see why the kids like you." he says, and Cat starts to giggle again, only for Sam to reach over and pinch her.

"Owey!"

The man chuckles as he leans back in the chair. "Well, I guess I should tell you why you're here." he says.

"That would be ideal."Sam quips.

He glances in Sam's direction quickly before he looks back at Cat. "Well, you have _a lot _of fans on Splashface. Five million followers in under a year is pretty insane, you know that right?"

Cat nods. "My brother is called insane all the time." she tells him.

Sonny's brow furrows for a moment before he shakes his head. "_Anyway_, we here at the Dingo Channel wanna expand that fame. We saw on your channel that you could sing, and I know you went to Hollywood Arts, so I'm sue you could do some more serious acting. So, we were thinking, maybe you'd like to bring some of your popularity here."

"What does she get out of it?" Sam questions. "She's not just gonna be your cash cow."

"And I would never expect her to be." the man says with a small smile in her direction. "Here at the Dingo Channel, we take care of our talent. Cat, you will _always _be taken care of."

Cat likes the sound of always being taken care of. "What do I have to do?" she asks.

Sonny smiles as he reaches into his desk. "Well, the only thing you'd have to do is sign some paperwork, and then we could get started."

Sam holds up a finger. "Shouldn't we get that looked at by a layer or something? Mama knows that you don't sign _anything_ without a lawyer present. I learned that from going to juvie."

Sonny's expression changes at that. "You've been in juvie?"

"Yup." Sam says, popping the P.

Sonny furrows his brows before he rubs the back of his neck. "Well uh, yes, you could look it over with your lawyer if you have one. It'll make the process a little slower, but I don't mind."

Cat furrows her brows. "I mind!" Cat shouts as she turns to look at Sam. "I don't wanna wait!"

"The grown ups are talking." Sam says dismissively as she waves her hand. She leans across the desk and motions her hand. "Let me see those papers."

Sonny raises an eyebrow before pointedly handing them over to Cat. "Miss Valentine look them over. You'll see that everything is legit. You can give us a call when you're ready."

"She will." Sam says, taking the papers from Cat and standing up. "Come on cupcake, let's go."

Cat swallows as she follows Sam out. She doesn't say anything until they get outside.

"Why were you acting like that?" Cat whines.

Sam sighs as she turns towards Cat. "I wasn't _acting_ a certain way, okay? I just… I want to make sure this is actually a good thing for you. I heard some crazy things about contracts."

Cat pouts. "I wanna sign it now."

Sam nods as she folds the papers up and puts them in her coat. "As soon as we go over them and we figure out they're good, then you'll sign them and make a ton of money. Promise kid."

Cat has every reason to trust Sam. she's never done anything to hurt her, besides going after Robbie that one time. But other than that, Sam has done everything she can to protect Cat, so she'll take her advice on this.

"Kay kay."

Jade throws her bider in her bag as the time gets closer and closer to 3:50 PM, meaning it's the end of class. The professor narrows his eyes at her, clearly annoyed.

Like she should care.

Once it's 3:50 she stands and leaves, even though her professor isn't done speaking.

She pulls out her phone and looks at a few notifications she has.

A couple random texts from Cat talking about god knows what, some notifications from her Splashface page, and another text from her roommate telling her that she's going to have guest and she would appreciate if Jade stayed away for awhile.

Jade laughs out loud at that. Her roommate, Paige, is a peppy strawberry blonde that hates Jade just as much as Jae hates her. She's always inviting her equally peppy dancer friends to their rooms, and they're a bit scared of Jade, as they should be.

And Jade could use the entertainment, so she definitely _will_ be heading back to her dorm.

"Hey!"

Jade keeps walking because she doesn' think they're referring to her. But then she feels a hand on her elbow. Her hand goes back on its own accord, and connects with her assailants face.

"_Never_ touch me." she barks as she turns and sees it's some guy from her class. He sits right behind her, not that she pays _that_ much attention to him. She's pretty sure his name is Kieran.

He's clutching his cheek with the same hand that's holding a very familiar looking notebook.

"So first you rob me then you attack me!?" she growls, snatching the notebook back from him.

"No! I just, you left your notebook in class so I was just giving it back to you." he explains as he holds his hand out. "I'm Kieran."

She was right. As usual.

"I don't care." she tells him, turning around and walking away from him. She thinks for a moment that he's going to follow her, and she's already preparing insults in her head, but she just heard him call out,

"See you in class!"

Okay then. It's not like she _wanted_ him to follow her anyways.

Jade makes her way to her way to her dorm, thinking about the various assignments she has to do. She has a couple of things due on Monday that she had not started yet.

When she gets there, her roommate narrows her eyes at her.

"Jade!" she exclaims with a sugary sweet smile that does not match the look in her eyes. She walks over to her, and that smile drops. "What are you doing here?"

"You know Paige, you are wasting your time being a dancer considering you're not very good at it." Jade tells her. "You should be an actress, you're much better at that."

Paige flares her nostrils in a way that never fails to make Jade chuckle. She's so easy to annoy.

"I _told _you not to come back to the dorm." Paige reminds her.

Jade nods as she moves past her, making sure her shoulder bumps into hers. "Yeah, I got your text. I decided to ignore it." she tells her as she makes her way to her bedroom, slamming her door behind her. She stops her backpack onto the ground and pulls out her phone, taking her time to actually read the texts from Cat.

And then she grabs her laptop and Skypes her.

"JADEY!" Cat shouts as soon as they connect, and it makes Jade grit her teeth. God, she hates that nickname. And she can't even threaten Cat properly to make her stop using it.

"What do you mean you had a meeting at the Dingo Channel?" Jade asks, getting right to the point.

"You didn't ready my texts?" Cat asks, a pout forming on her lips.

"I did. And they were riddled with so many typos I didn't even try to decode them. So just tell me what happened."

"Okay! So-"

"And leave out any stories about your brother."

Cat's mouth shuts momentarily before she says, "I'll _try_."

Cat goes into details but the meeting, how successful her Splashface videos were and how they wanted to expand her platform, how Sam was ith her, and how this guy at the Dingo Channel gave her a contract to go over. Jade was genuinely happy for her best friend, though she would never admit that Cat was her best friend.

"That's really cool Cat." the brunette tells her redheaded friend.

Cat smiles happily before it turns into a slight frown. "I wanted to sign the contract there but Sam wouldn't let me. She says we need to make sure it's legit. But why wouldn't it be? It's not the fake Dingo Channel, it's the real one."

Jade loves her friend, truly, she does, but there's a lot about Cat that she cannot stand. Her naivety is one of them.

"Well, I agree with Sam. I think that it's good you didn't sign it right away. There might be something in there that you don't like." Jade explains slowly, like she's talking to a five year old. And most of the time, mentally, Cat is just that.

Cat pouts and crosses her arms across her chest. "Of _course_ you agree with Sam."

Jade rolls her eyes. She had forgotten how jealous Cat is of her friendship with the blonde, like _she's_ not the reason they're friends in the first place.

"I think you should just make sure that everything in the contract is what you really want." Jade tells Cat.

The ditzy girl shrugs as she plays with the ends of her hair. "I don't see why there wouldn't be anything that I want. Sonny seems _so_ nice."

"Anyone named Sonny Waterer is not to be trusted." Jade says with a shake of her head. "That's such a meteorologists name and meteorologists _lie_."

Cat blinks. "You think he's made up of rocks?"

It's Jade's turn to blink. "What?"

"Meteorites! They're the space rocks, right? So a meteorologist would be like, a person made a space rocks. Oh my god do you think Sonny is an _alien_? One time, my brother found and aleins and he-"

"CAT!" Jade barks, and the redhead simply pouts.

"Whatey?"

"Stop talking."

Cat rolls her eyes and mutters something under her breath that sounds a lot like _bossy_.

Jade rolls her eyes before she says, "Whatever, I just wanted to tell you that you getting on the Dingo Channel is pretty cool, so I'm gonna go now."

"WAIT!" Cat exclaims, and Jade pauses. "Don't hang up. We have to talk about stuff."

"What stuff?" Jade questions.

"Best friend stuff." Cat says in almost conspiring tone.

Jade narrows her eyes at her friend. She knows Cat pretty well, and she knows that right now Cat is just trying to keep her on the line.

It's annoying, but Jade would be lying if she said she didn't miss Cat, so she obliges.

"Fine. What do you wanna talk about?"

Cat grins, and starts rambling about whatever comes to mind. Jade allows the distracted Cat to ramble on as she pulls out her phone and looks through Splashface. She likes a post of Andre's talking about how he was halfway through a paper when he realized that he was writing song lyrics into the paper.

She'll never relate to that.

"Jadey!" Cat says loudly, making Jade look up from her phone.

"What!?"

"I _said_ how is New York?" Cat asks.

"Loud, crowded, and cold." Jade deadpans.

Cat scrunches up her nose. "It doesn't sound very fun." she muses.

"I'm not here for fun, I'm here for school." Jade reminds her.

"School was fun." Cat argues.

"It was Hollywood Arts, that was more of a fever dream than anything else." Jade says with a shrug. Sometimes looking back at her high school experience, she can't believe half the things that happened. And that people _allowed _them to happen.

"Well Broadway is fun." Cat says as she cocks her head to the side. "You should be on Broadway Jadey."

"Kinda busy with school." Jade curtly replies. "Speaking of, I have some homework to do so I'll call you later okay bye." Jade says, hanging up before Cat can argue.

She sighs as she runs a hand through her dark brown hair.

She hasn't told Cat that other than a play that she did for the school, Jade hasn't been able to spread her creative wings since being in New York.

She's auditined, oh she has auditioned so many times that she was quite frankly getting sick of the whole process, especially when she wasn't hearing anything back.

She thought that once she graduated from Hollywood Arts things would change. She would be away from Tori Vega and her annoying perfectness, and she would finally be able to show the entertainment world who Jade West is.

But she hasn't. Because the world isn't interested.


	3. iii

_**Hi hi hi! I just wanted to say thank you for the reviews! I appreciate them sm! So, last chapter as a look into the girl's current lives, and this chapter will be the boys! There's a slight time jump of a week, but nothing major. **_

**III**

Andre Harris wonders how he got here.

Here, explaining to his grandma yet _again_ that her reflection in the window was just that, a reflection, and not living on campus at UCLA like he should have when he had the chance.

"Grandma, you cannot skip your meds." Andre repeats for what has to be the billionth time as he hands her the two little white pills. He watches as she pops them in her mouth and then swallows some water. "Tongue check." he says, and his grandma lifts her tongue, showing that the pills are not there. "Alright. I have to get some homework done, so can you _please_ try not to run outside again? I don't have time to chase you."

"OKAY ANDRE!" his grandma shouts, and she's running off in the direction of her bedroom. He knows she won't stay there very long, so he hops on his laptop immediately.

Andre loves his grandma, she's the reason that he's the man that he is, and he likes to think that he's a good man. But man, taking care of her isn't easy.

He doesn't know any eighteen year old who has to do the things he does. His friends sure don't. He loves Tori, he really does, but he envies the fact that she could be quitting school and focusing full time on her music career. That's something he couldn't do, not right now. He has a part-time job, because he has to help out with the bills (his grandma's disability checks only go so far), as well as classes. He barely has time to write music anymore, and when he does have the time he's so tired that he just sleeps instead.

He can't believe that he _misses _high school. Everything just seemed so much easier then.

He pushes those thoughts out of his head. He doesn't have time to dwell on the past, he needs to focus on finishing this paper.

He writes for about fifteen minutes before he has to go and calm down his grandma and explain that the toilet is just that, a toilet, and not something that's going to take her and swallow her whole. The whole explanation takes damn near an hour.

When he has time to get back to his paper, his phone starts ringing. He sighs before he looks at it, and sees that Tori's calling. He taps the green button and brings it to his ear.

"Hey Tori, this really isn't a good time-"

"Andre! I need you." Tori says.

Andre sighs as he rubs his forehead. He knows he should tell her he has a paper, that he can't afford any more distractions. But still, he finds himself saying, "What's going on?"

"I have this demo I need to get to Mason tonight and I have _stuckkkk_ on the bridge. Do you have time to come help me?"

No. He doesn't have the time. He needs to finish this paper.

"_Please _Andre." Tori whines, and Andre sighs as he slams his laptop shut.

"I'll be right there." he tells her. "Lemme just make sure my grandma can't do anything crazy while I'm gone."

"Andre, you are the best friend a girl could ask for!" Tori exclaims before she hangs up, and Andre shakes his head with a soft smile.

He does his routine he always does before he leaves the house, which is making sure the house is basically childproof, which makes it Grandma Harris proof. And then he heads to UCLA's campus, and to Tori's dorm. Tori's already waiting for him outside.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice." Tori says.

Andre waves a dismissive hand. "Anything for you, girl."

He doesn't know when his relationship with Tori became this, something where he jumps at the thought of her even _needing _him. Although, he knows he doesn't do this just for Tori, he'd do it for any of his friends. Tori's the one who always seems to ask him for something.

"Have you talked to Beck lately?" Tori asks, making idle chat while they make their way to her dorm room.

Andre shakes his head. "Not lately, maybe a week - no, two weeks ago. He was excited about his pilot being picked up." Andre tells her. "Why, have you?"

Tori shakes her head, and Andre notices just how disappointed she looks. "He hasn't reached out in over a month. I mean, sometimes he likes my Splash posts, but I don't know, that's not _really_ reaching out."

Andre feels he need to make her feel better, so he just bumps her with his elbow. "You know, he's probably just super busy shooting his show."

Tori looks at him then. "He's been talking to _Sinjin_."

Andre furrows his brows. "I know you can't be talking about the Sinjin I think you're talking about."

Tori huffs out a laugh before she pulls out her PearPhone and starts typing at her screen furiously before she turns towards him and shoves the phone in his face. Andre takes a step back just so that he can see the screen properly and finds himself looking at a post from Sinjin;

_Spent the whole day talking to my pal BeckOliver about drag racing. Man I love drag racing. Also my friend is gonna be in a show. But not about drag racing. I did watch the pilot though, and it's about something almost as cool_

Below that was a comment from Beck;

_ SinjinVanThief Glad you liked it!_

"He sent Sinjin the pilot?" Andre asks, and Tori nods almost violently.

"How could he send _Sinjin _the pilot of all people!?" Tori asks incredulously. "I mean, we are his best friends."

Andre thinks about that. _Were_ they Beck's best friends? Of course they were close in high school, but Andre knows that Tori was his best friend, and then that was followed by Robbie, interestingly enough. Beck… he hung out with Jade mostly, and then spent a lot of time with Tori but Andre wasn't sure if that was all… platonic. But were he and Bek best friends? Back in high school, he might have thought so, but now, not so much.

Maybe that's why he wasn't so broken up about not seeing the pilot. Surprised, but not too upset. He could see that Tori was.

"Maybe he just wanted an unbiased opinion." Andre tells her. "As his friends, we'd probably tell him it was good even if it was boo boo."

Tori scrunches her nose up. "Who says _boo boo_?"

"I say boo boo!" Andre defends.

Tori rolls her eyes. "Well, I could be honest with Beck. And I think you would be too. I just… we all feel so distant from each other. I mean, when's the last time you talked to Robbie, or Cat, or Jade?"

Andre doesn't tell her that Cat texted him earlier that day raving about her possible deal from the Dingo Channel, because if Tori didn't know, it meant that Cat hadn't texted her. So instead he says, "Yeah. It sucks. But hey, we're still close."

"Promise me that'll never change." Tori says softly.

He doesn't have to lie about that, because he doesn't want it to change either.

"We'll always be best friends Tori. Always."

Tori grins at that, looping her arm with his. "Great. Now, let's write this song." she says as they end up right in front of her dorm room.

Since Tori's roommate was hardly ever there, they were able to start sitting down and writing almost immediately. The process of songwriting is a long one, especially when there's no inspiration. Tori doesn't even know what she _wants_ to sing about, she just knows she needs a song for Mason before the deadline. They try several times, several starts and stops, before Tori throws herself onto her bed.

"Lets just go to sleep and admit I'm a failure." she whines.

"Stop whining." Andre tells her.

"I'm not whining." Tori says with a pout.

"You are whining. You're being a whining baby." Andre teases her.

Tori rolls her eyes as she pushes at his shoulder. "Shut up. If I'm whining it's because I can't _think _of anything worth singing. I'm not heartbroken, I'm not embarrassed, I'm not thinking of a way to get back at someone. I have _nothing_."

"You don't have _nothing_." Andre says as he moves so that he can sit closer to her. "You have this," he says, tapping her temple. "And you have that." he says, motioning towards her heart. "You can make any song you need to with that."

Tori sighs as she looks at him. "I don't know Andre. _You_ can write. I just… can perform." she says as she looks at her hands.

Andre sighs as he pulls his laptop into his lap. "Alright, well you know what, why don't you just sing one of my songs?" he suggests.

Tori blinks as she looks at Andre. "Wait, what? No, I can't do that. I mean, Mason wants me to showcase my skills-"

"And you'd still be doing that. It'll be you singing. It'll be your talent. I just wrote the words." Andre tells her as he pulls up a song. "Just see if you like it, and if you do, then we can rehearse until you know it."

"Thank you so much Andre." Tori says softly. "You're really the best friend a girl could have."

"I know." Andre says with a smile before he turns towards his laptop. "Alright, come on girl, let's rehearse.

They rehearse for hours until Tori knows the song backwards and forwards, and even then Andre still emails her the lyrics in case she needs to rehearse them even more. It's pushing four am when he finally decides that he needs to go home and get a few hours of shut eye before he has to get to his nine am class.

"You sure you don't wanna stay here?" Tori asks.

Anddre shakes his head. "I have to make sure my grandma eats her breakfast, and her morning meds, or you know, she'll lose her mind."

Tori smiles softly, shaking her head as she climbs into her bed. "Alright. Well, I'll see you later for lunch?"

"Later alligator." he says as he walks towards her door.

"In a while, crocodile!" she calls after him as he leaves.

When Andre gets home, he checks in on his grandma, and then he bullshits his way through his paper before falling asleep a little after six am, only to have to wake up forty five minutes later.

Roobbie _loves_ New York.

He loves everything about the face paced city, and he loves everything about hiss school, NYU.

But most of all, he loves how much he's changed since moving here.

He was going to stay in LA even after getting accepted into one of the best performing arts colleges in the country, all because he wanted to be there for Cat.

Honestly, he has to thank Jade for talking him out of doing that. She may have had her own reasons for doing it, but it was the right thing to do for him.

Robbie had friends. He wasn't popular by any means, but he had a really good group of friends. And he had friends that didn't think he was some annoying dweeb, like Jade and Tori did, or even sometimes Beck and Andre did, despite what they might've said.

And he had a girlfriend.

Molly also went to NYU, and she was in the creative writing department. She was super sweet, and pretty, and she really liked _him_.

Sometimes he couldn't believe it.

So life has been good for Robbie since he left LA, and yet…

Well, he would be lying if he said he didn't think about Cat. They were still friends, and he still had a weak spot for the redhead. He was pretty sure that he always would. So whenever she needed him to edit something for her Splashface page.

And now he has been video chatting with her for over two hours talking about her possible deal with the Dingo Channel.

"Maybe you could work on the show too Robbie!" she says gleefully.

Robbie smiles as he shrugs. "I don't know Cat, I have school."

"But you're going to school for filmmaking. If you worked on my show you would already be doing filmmaking. It's perfect!" Cat tells him.

He has to admit, it makes sense, but still, "You don't even know if you're gonna have the show yet."

"Well, Sam knows a lawyer, actually it's her lawyer, I didn't know she owned one but she does! And we're gonna meet with her next week and see if everything is okay. Then I'll be able to have my show and you can be my director! Oh! Maybe I can get Andre to write my theme song, and maybe Beck will act in my show. And Jadey! Jadey could play my best friend, which won't be hard because she's already my best friend, and-"

"That sounds great Cat." Robbie interjects with a smile.

Cat smiles happily. "It would be _so_ great," she says before she looks at him. "Have you talked to Jadey?"

Robbie shakes his head. "Why would I talk to Jade?" he asks.

He and Jade were never _really_ friends. He knows for the most part, Jade just tolerated him for Cat's sake. Just because they were the only ones in New York didn't change that.

"Jadey seems sad." Cat says. "I know she's usually angry, but this is different. I think she misses Beck. But she would never _say_ that. And I don't think she likes Julliard either."

"Why wouldn't she like Julliard?' Robbie questions. It was one of the best performing art schools in the _world_, and Jade had gotten in on a full scholarship.

"She never wanted to go to Julliard, her dad wanted her to." Cat tells him.

Robbie furrows his brows. "Then why did she apply? She had to want to go, even if it was a little bit."

"He wouldn't pay for the rest of her applications if she didn't apply." Cat informs him.

Robbie doesn't say anything, because he doesn't really have anything to say. It sounds like a sucky situation.

"Well what do you want me to do?" Robbie asks.

"I don't know, just, be friends with her. When you go places take her with you." Cat says before she adds, "I see you hang out with new people."

He nods. "Yeah. I made a couple new friends."

He hasn't told her about Molly. He doesn't know why, because he _should _be able to tell the girl who is his best friend (and yeah, maybe still, so much more) that he has a girlfriend. But he hasn't, and he doesn't know when he will.

"Well Jadey needs some friends. Not a _best friend_," Cat says quickly and firmly. "_I'm _her best friend. But. Just a friend. Just until I can see her in person again."

Robbie nods as he shrugs his shoulders. "I'll see if she wants to hang out." he tells her.

It won't be too bad. He'll over Jade the opportunity to hang out, she'll say no, and he can tell Cat that.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezie.

—

Beck had missed LA.

He loves that his show shoots in Canada, specifically Vancouver, because he gets to visit the family he has there, but LA has become his home, and he's happy to be back.

He can't lie though, things feel… different now.

Tori, Andre, and Cat are all still in LA, but he hasn't reached out to any of them. Of course, it's been a grand total of three hours since he's been home, but he still hasn't bothered to send a text. He will, eventually, of course, because he still wants to check in with Cat about what she texted him about some show on the Dingo Channel, but his co-stars wanted to meet up tonight, and honestly, he's become good friends with them.

And then he told Sinjin they could hang out when he got back, because somehow, he and Sinjin had become friends. Probably because Sinjin was super insistent, but Beck also found him pretty interesting.

"So Beckett," his dad says, bringing him out of his thoughts. "What do you do next?"

Beck raises an eyebrow. "Dad, I justfinished filming a season for a show."

"Half a season right? Your mom said it's thirteen episodes."

"Yes but-" Beck starts, but his dad interjects.

"So you don't know that it'll work out. You have to have something to fall back on Beckett. I've always told you that."

"I know." Beck says. Because he does know. His father has been telling him the same thing ever since they moved here from Canada Beck's eighth grade year, when Beck met Andre, then Robbie, then Cat, and finally Jade. And then, even though he had already known he wanted to be an actor by then, he knew for _sure _that he wanted to go to Hollywood Arts.

His dad was the child of Indian immigrants, so Beck understood why his dad valued hard work above all. He didn't understand why his dad thought that the work that he was putting into his work wasn't as hard.

"So, do you have some other gigs lined up? Or something else to occupy your time?" his dad asks.

"Uh, I was kinda just gonna chill until I have to start doing press." Beck tells his dad. "Nothing too serious. Probably do some writing."

He knows his dad doesn't like his answer. Beck and his father are completely opposite; Beck has always been good at hiding his emotions, and his dad's are written all over his face.

"Maybe you should take some classes," his dad suggests. "You could take them online."

"I could. But I don't think I will." Beck tells his dad.

At that moment, they pull into their driveway, where his RV has been for months. He's finally home.

Beck starts to get out of the car, but his dad grabs his arm. "Beckett, you know, I just want the best for you."

"I know dad."

His dad nods, before he lets go of his arm. Beck hops out of the car and heads into his RV.

It feels… different.

Maybe it's because of how clean it is.

Beck tosses his suitcase on his bed and then flops down beside it, before he pulls out his phone.

He's gotten a few texts from his co-stars, asking which club he wanted to go out to tonight. Beck isn't a club guy, he's barely a party guy. He's more than content enough to stay in the house and watch reruns of _Full House _or _Celebrities Under Water_.

But he supposed that partying is just another perk of fame. He knows plenty of young celebrities do.

He tells them that he's down to go anywhere they wanna go, before he decides to look at his socials.

He has to scroll through five thousand pictures of Trina, who seems to post every hour. He remembers when they found out most of her followers were bought.

Who is she posting these selfies for?

He sees some posts of Cat's, of Andre's and Tori's, and then he has to log into his side account to look at Jade's account, considering she blocked his main one.

He doesn't think it's _that _weird. It's not like he's stalking her or anything. He just… he wants to see how she's doing. They were huge parts of each other's lives, as he still cares, even if she doesn't.

Jade doesn't post a lot, she never did, but Beck notices that when she does post, there's the same guy posting in comments.

Kieran.

There's no posts of him on Jade's page, so they're obviously not dating, because Jade likes to claim her boyfriends. But the guy is clearly interested, and considering the fact that Jade isn't threatening him in her comments, Beck thinks she might be interested too.

And that's when he logs off.

He can't think about Jade being with someone else. Not when he doesn't even know why she broke up with him. He knows what she _said_, but… he just feels like there was more to it.

He ignores that though, and focuses on where his cast members decide. They settle on going to a club that he knows is _very _well known and popular.

He decides to take a nap before going out.

When he wakes up, he spends extra time on his hair, and while he doesn't over dress, he makes sure to wear his best casual clothes.

He hears a car horn, and he peaks out of his bulletproof window to see his co-star, Lacey, in her convertible.

Lacey is a gorgeous black girl, who plays his love interest in the show. Well, one of them anyway. But if he's being honest, he wants his character to end up with her, because he likes Lacey, she's a cool person.

Her boyfriend, Jacob, is in the passenger seat and is another one of his co-stars. He likes Jacob well enough, but he really didn't work with him that much to spend time with him, but from what Lacey tells him that he's cool.

He leaves the trailer and waves as they wave at him.

"You live in a trailer dude?" Jacob asks as Beck hops into the back seat.

"Yeah."

"How long have you lived in that?" Jacob wants to know.

"Since my freshman year." Beck answers as Lacey pulls out of his driveway. She looks at him through the rearview mirror.

"Seriously? You've lived on your own since you were like fourteen?" she questions.

Beck nods. "I don't like living by other people's rules. Even if those people are my parents."

Jacob grins as he nods. "That's awesome dude. Screw the rules!"

Lacey laughs, and Beck grins.

Screw the rules. Words to live by.


End file.
